Big Lead Sports Bar

10/03/2010

10 Thoughts on Steelers-Ravens

Ike Taylor holding on to an interception? I'm glad we have photo proof that it actually happened.

And for 10 more thoughts of considerably greater length on the Steelers-Ravens game, I direct you to The Fan website for my weekly wrapup. I've heard that this is a hardship for some of you, but isn't it worth it to see how I handle the awkward situation of awarding the Sad Trombone in a Steeler defeat?

The play calling on the Stillers 2nd to last offensive drive was terrible. Everything played out exactly how they should have expected with those plays. We'll run the clock down (take off 0:50ish with 3 plays) and punt it back to BAL at the 50 with 1:30 to go. I don't see how it could've turned out any differently? If only we had Herm Edwards for an OC? Hello, you play to win the game! ONE first down ends the game. GO FOR A DAMN FIRST DOWN!!! That being said, if Peyton Hillis can run all over the ravens, why can't Rashard?

With C-Batch at QB, the play calling was fine. The last thing you want is to see him throwing it out of the end zone there because you know it's only going to result in an incompletion, which stops the clock, or a sack for a safety. The problem was with the execution and the stupid false start penalties when the whole objective there was to get the Ravens to jump, not us. Has there been a game to date that Spaeth hasn't been flagged for something?

Even with two idiotic false starts and the hold on the punt, they should have been able to hold the Ravens to no more than a FG and a tie game instead of allowing them to pass effortlessly into the end zone.

With Ben out, there was a legitimate excuse for the lame offensive showing but I blame the defensive play calling and awful play at CB at the end of the game for the loss. McFadden in this game just showed why he was so expendable in Arizona and why the Steelers let him go in the first place. This lame pass D is now ranked 21st, when last season they finished ranked 16th, so we can only imagine who bad it would be without Troy.

The Pass rush was non-existent partly because we were dropping guys, partly because Oher was false starting and choking Harrison on every single down. At least we got the one flag when he was tearing his jersey off of his back.

The play calling from deep in our zone wasn't the problem for me, it was the execution and stupid false starts at home. Terrible.

Honestly, I would have thrown in an extra tackle as a TE and kept Johnson in at fullback and just tried to run a Halfback dive on each down and see how far we could push the pile.

Batch was a bit off and he really didn't have any touch whatsoever. He missed several open guys in key situations, most notably Heath Miller a few times. It will be nice to have QB1 back for the Browns game.

The pass D may be ranked 21st, but the only QB that legitimately did well against us was Flacco.

We gave up two long, garbage time TD drives in the Tennessee and Buccaneer game. That skewed things.

Plus, teams pass much more often against us because nobody can run on us. So the yards will pile up eventually.

A more accurate way to judge our pass defense would probably be QB rating against, and the fact that they have many more picks than passing TDs against them.

Also, they blitzed Troy on the TD pass. It was obvious that McFadden, who has played well to this point in the season, needed help over the top. In fact, most corners (not named Revis or Sanders) do, especially in the Steelers defense, which rarely puts corners in man against receivers. We took a risk on blitzing some of our over the top help, and it burnt us. Shit happens.

Hey! Give Oher a break! He was just a poor kid who needed that family of rich people to take him in so he could make something of himself!! He's aloud to bend the rules all he wants, poor-yet-oh-so inspirational guy. :: end sarcasm::

The real irony in those 2 false start penalties is that i am fairly certain Batch was hard-counting to draw the Ravens offisde and our own guys bit on it....... There is plenty of blame to go around for this one.

Eric - yeah, I caught that after I posted but was hoping no one would catch it. Either way, they should have held them to a FG and at least makes them work for it.

I also said that other than the late defensive lapse that is fast becoming a Steelers trademark, it was the stupid penatlies that were to blame and the fact that they fooled themselves with the hard count instead of the Ravens.

So, if the Steelers were ranked dead last in the NFL in pass defense it would all be good as long as they only $hit the bed in the final minutes of games? Whatever helps some sleep I guess. It's called playing for 60 minutes and they still haven't done it this season and this time it bit them.